Whoa. Raja sure hate asians !!!In what way tamim & pujara lesser cricketers than adcock & houghton? Is skin color that important for you raja? Raja sure thinks like a racist who despise lighter skin Asian cricketers. There is no rational thought or logic behind this on whatever way I try to understand but I see only pure hatred. I am very disappointed. A player need to be dead to get some respect here?

As a kid, Raga sure must be afraid of ghosts and don't want to say any bad words towards the dead in fear that they might scare the shit out of him in revenge. That must be it.

Going South wrote:Whoa. Raja sure hate asians !!!In what way tamim & pujara lesser cricketers than adcock & houghton? Is skin color that important for you raja? Raja sure thinks like a racist who despise lighter skin Asian cricketers. There is no rational thought or logic behind this on whatever way I try to understand but I see only pure hatred. I am very disappointed. A player need to be dead to get some respect here?

As a kid, Raga sure must be afraid of ghosts and don't want to say any bad words towards the dead in fear that they might scare the shit out of him in revenge. That must be it.

I had pujara in my sights as my number three until he was picked. And I rate Iqbal as bangladeshs best out and out batsman. Shakib is a top all rounder in any current team in my opinion. Those two and possibly this newer chap with the high average who bats in their middle order and BDs only good players, arguably

Warren Bardsley, who died in Sydney on January 20, aged 71, was one the greatest left-handed batsmen produced by Australia. Only two of his countrymen, Sir Donald Bradman and AL Hassett [Also my pick ] , surpassed his record of 53 centuries -- 29 of them scored in England -- in first-class matches. As a stylist, Bardsley compared favorably with any left-hander of his day. His upright stance and eminently straight bat never failed to exercise a special charm upon spectators, and he used his feet to perfection while employing a wide variety of strokes.He was stronger in hitting past cover and to leg and he possessed a specially powerful straight drive.

In the 1908-09 season he scored in nine innings 748 runs, including 119 against South Australia, 192 against Victoria and, for the Australian XI against The Rest, 264. Despite these feats, he was not among the first men chosen to go to England in 1909, but on that tour he at once found his finest form and retained it. When hitting 136 and 130 from the England bowling at The Oval he became the first player of a list now grown to fourteen to hit two separate hundreds in a Test match.

Sir Jack Hobbs said of Bardsley: I cannot imagine a nicer type of fellow. I probably played against him as often as any Englishman and he was one of the best left-handers of the upright, classical school that I have ever seen.

Scary Fast bowling attack, Jonathon Trott wouldn't walk out there, made a scapegoat for the bodyline series and got shafted.

Harold Larwood's life embodied drama and romance given to few cricketers. One of the rare fast bowlers in the game's long history to spread terror in opposition ranks by the mere mention of his name, he was, in turn, a young tearaway breaking free in the 1920s from a life in the Nottinghamshire coalmines; an English ogre and villain who bowled bumpers (as the bouncer was then called) at the heads and bodies of Australian batsmen; a `disgraced' hero banished to obscurity; and eventually a post-war migrant welcomed to Sydney in 1950 with his wife and family, the warmth of acceptance by those once so hostile to this aggressor proving both touching and slightly incomprehensible to him.

John Waite is my Wicket keeper, who can bats higher position or lower down, not too many keeper with 50 test or less has batting average of 30 plus, 134 was his highest test score, he also hits 16 test Fifties, and 141 Dismissal as Keeper (2405 runs with 4 century too)

His FC record good with near 10000 runs and 509 dismissal including 84 stumping.He represent southafrica in test cricket

Johnny Waite was something of a legend for over a decade of Springbok cricket during the 1950s and '60s, as he became the first man to represent his country in 50 Tests - and the only one to do so in the pre-isolation era. First selected in 1951 as a 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman, Waite showed he was no shrinking violet by joining his uncle, Eric Rowan, in a remarkable display of protest when both sat down on the pitch while batting against Lancashire after being slow-handclapped. Waite's pugnacity as a batsman, the strength of his character and his skill with the gloves meant that he displaced first-choice keeper Russell Endean and played in the first four Tests of the series. Waite was chosen as Endean's understudy once more for the 1952-53 tour of Australia, but again rose quickly to the top forcing Endean to reinvent himself, successfully, as a specialist batsman. Most of Waite's long list of national records have now been surpassed by Dave Richardson and Mark Boucher, although he still holds, with Boucher, the record for the most dismissals in a five-Test series - 26.

Last edited by Misty on Thu Jan 19, 2017 8:38 am, edited 5 times in total.

My choice for number four in my batting order may have been ineligible for this draft but for a twist of fate that led to him being born in a nation for which Test cricket is as rare as emeralds. But 19 caps for Zimbabwe gave us a glimpse of a skillful middle-order player who took 166 from a Pakistan attack of Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar and Saqlain Mushataq, after coming in at 15/2; 148 off Gough, Caddick and Flintoff at Trent Bridge coming in when the score was 1/1; and 113 off of Walsh and Ambrose after coming in when the score was 5/1.

Were it not for problems living in Zimbabwe for his family that in the end took him to reside in Australia, he may have played many more matches and been able to show off his ability. But two of his three hundreds were scored away from home, all of them came after wickets were lost with the score still in single figures, and he averaged 41 outside home conditions in an era rife with deadly pace bowlers. He's a middle order man for a crisis, and one who can play away from home: he scored 14,572 runs for Sussex at 49.22 with 48 hundreds, and another 4,308 for Western Australia including a double hundred.

With 19 Tests, 1,414 runs at 42.84, three hundreds and eight fifties a best of 166*, my number four is Murray Goodwin

As GS would say, Goodwin is not Asian, so he is automatically in my "approved" list. :-)

So true. I might put a non cricketer with a white sounding name, pref Australian played 1910s, average stats, a story to go by on some English exploits on tour, boom and you would support in a blink of eye. Ha !

raja wrote:As GS would say, Goodwin is not Asian, so he is automatically in my "approved" list. :-)

So true. I might put a non cricketer with a white sounding name, pref Australian played 1910s, average stats, a story to go by on some English exploits on tour, boom and you would support in a blink of eye. Ha !

Ranji, an Indian prince, was probably one of the finest batsmen of all time, not only in terms of runs scored but also because he brought new strokes to the game. His keen eye, unorthodoxy and speed of reaction meant that introduced the late cut and leg glance, as well as the art of back-foot defence.

Surprised since the FC tournament Ranji trophy is named after him if I am not wrong? One would think such views could be unpopular.

He probably went with the mainstream popular views. I imagine he would not have been allowed to play for Eng or play FC cricket in Eng if he was pro independence. I don't even think the independence movement was at it's peak in his time, but I could be wrong..

Ranji, an Indian prince, was probably one of the finest batsmen of all time, not only in terms of runs scored but also because he brought new strokes to the game. His keen eye, unorthodoxy and speed of reaction meant that introduced the late cut and leg glance, as well as the art of back-foot defence.

Ranji, an Indian prince, was probably one of the finest batsmen of all time, not only in terms of runs scored but also because he brought new strokes to the game. His keen eye, unorthodoxy and speed of reaction meant that introduced the late cut and leg glance, as well as the art of back-foot defence.

My number three!! Dammit

Hehe

You should have gone for Ranji this round instead of picking Murray Goodwin. You could have had both of them. Never heard of Goodwin and I think this is the first time he is selected in a draft, so doubt Raja or Ted would have picked him.

Surprised since the FC tournament Ranji trophy is named after him if I am not wrong? One would think such views could be unpopular.

He probably went with the mainstream popular views. I imagine he would not have been allowed to play for Eng or play FC cricket in Eng if he was pro independence. I don't even think the independence movement was at it's peak in his time, but I could be wrong..

Oh, the independence movement was much later.

The thing is, Ranji was royalty - and though he got racist treatment in England at least initially (in fact he used the name "Smith" to cover his Indian origin), he did get educated there and spent many years there till he returned to India to take over as prince of Nawanagar. By the way, this is a complicated story - he was apparently not even the heir to the throne, but he played some tricks to get the throne.

(There's a very dark side to Ranji's character - I myself got to know it much later in my life when I read a book on him. For many, he's just a great cricketer - but he was even accused of assassination! Even how he financed his education in England is dubious.)

Anyway, coming back to the freedom movement. It gained momentum after 1915, when Gandhiji returned to India. By then Ranji's playing days were over and he was prince in India. As prince, he was close to the British Viceroy and other British high-ranking officials. He needed their support for his own good.

So he wasn't supportive at all of the freedom movement. That would have put his relations with the British at risk.

All in all, he seems to have been a shady character and quite an unscrupulous person.

But yes, he was a fine batsman - and when he died in 1933, a trophy was named to commemorate him. Those were still British Raj times - so it made sense. Had he opposed the British, it wouldn't have happened.